Illness/Sickness: Gill fillaments still shrunken, how do you get them better?

[caseeybrown]

My axie has been ill a few times lately, as said in one of my previous threads i dont know what's caused the illness/es as nothing in his tank has changed and the routine is the same.

Anyways he seems to be ok now, fungus and white patches gone but his gills are so small and stumpy compared to what they used to be

how can i help aid the re-growth?

thanks casey

ps he's on his own currently in a 2ft tank, airstone, hidey places and plants

 

[My Lottie]

Hi there !.... Glad your axie is better... as is my Lottie!:happy:

One thing I would like you to think about, is....adding a water filter to the tank.!!

I was like you and only had the air stone.....and after 1 1/2 years of using that, and doing water changes, and vaccuming etc, my Lottie got ????????, and didn't eat for a month !!

I thought it was a "stone in her belly problem"...., but it seems obvious now, that it was the water needed a filter, as well!!

A few people post that the flow is too strong... I have got that sorted....slit a piece of hose length ways, and push it onto the outlet.... and behold... you have a quiet flow directed onto the side of the tank... :ha:

I have sent you a couple of pics showing what it looks like..
Cheers...:happy:

 

[danchristopher]

+1 for adding a filter, will make it a lot easier when it comes to keeping your tank conditions nice and healthy. Even if you just get a sponge filter and connect it to your current air pump, this will give beneficial bacteria a good place to colonise.

As for your axolotls stubby gills - this is something that can just happen if the axolotl has been through some kind of illness, especially if it's affected the gills. An axolotl I got from a pet store a couple of months back had tiny almost non-existant gills when I got her. They have slowly been regenerating and are starting to show some good growth; it's taken some time but I'm hoping that they will grow out nicely.

Some axolotls can regrow their gills very quickly, I know people on here have had their axies have stubby gills and a month later they are nice and long again. I believe though that sometimes the gills won't ever grow back to their original length and might stay stubby and smaller for the rest of their lives.
Just have to wait and see I'm afraid!

 

[caseeybrown]

Oh i do have a filter guys!

But he must still be ill.. Refusing to eat and when i tried to feed him a worm just then he threw up in his tank quite a few times :O

I dont know what to do! his skin on his back looks a bit whiteish now?!

I did a water change and cleaned the filter the other day to help get rid of the fungus (seems to have worked but now this?! Im worried for him

 

[PAWS]

Any chance you could post a picture or two? It would make it much easier for us to comment?

My Axi had nothing but stubs and these grew back in about 3 weeks and after 8 weeks seem fully developed. A good diet helps, good earthworms, controlled water changes etc. and water testing. You can't hurry nature but you can put all the things in place to make recovery optimised.

 

[danchristopher]

What's the temperature in your tank Casey? And the pH of the water? These can be factors I've found when it comes to white skin patches and such.

Also, how did you clean the filter? Did you rinse everything in a bucket of tank water? Using fresh tap water would have killed all the beneficial bacteria in your filter.

 

[birdyy]

sorry to be a pain in the neck, but i just wanted to check. the gills grow back?

because i want looking around my area for axolotl's and i found some but they have quite short gills and not many filaments on them, i was just concerned that they wouldn't grow back or that it was indicating something else about the health of the little darlings.

Thanks!!